One of the 10 most outstanding innovations released by Popular Mechanics magazine is the Windbelt, invented by Shawn Frayne. It’s a brilliant innovation using a commonly known toy during our childhood days, the “pahugong” that makes our kite hum like a drone. It’s so simple. When I saw it, “Why I didn’t think of that?”. I believe this is a very useful gadget, worthy to start a project, that will benefit a remote area like the Mantigue Island in Camiguin Province.

I thought of Mantigue because when I was still the CAMTECO manager, one of the German GTZ consultants Mr Heinz Pomplun, personally donated a wind turbine system to Mantigue. However, due to its cost and the shipping, it’s not just possible to provide all households. In contrast, the Windbelt, can be built with available local materials at very, very low cost. For less than P500, you can build one with enough to power a transistor radio or light LEDs.

If there are any interested parties willing to handle this project for Mantigue, I can design circuits to chain Windbelts together so that it can produce more power or charge batteries. This is also a very good science project for elementary and high school levels.